On Optimizing Inter- and Intra-Chiplet Interconnection Topologies for Robust Multi-Chiplet Systems

Inter- and intra-chiplet interconnection networks play a vital role in the operation of many core systems made of multiple chiplets. However, these networks are susceptible to faults caused by manufacturing defects and attacks resulting from the malicious insertion of hardware Trojans and backdoors. Unlike conventional fault-tolerant or countermeasure methods, this article focuses on optimizing network robustness to withstand both faults and attacks, while considering the constraints of chiplet area and power budget. To achieve this, this article first defines network robustness as a quantifiable measure based on various network parameters, after which an optimization problem is formulated to optimize the robustness of the network topology. To efficiently solve this problem, a reinforcement learning algorithm is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is capable of generating inter- and intra-chiplet interconnection networks that are significantly more robust than existing topology generation methods. Specifically, the proposed method improves robustness over ButterDonut and Kite, respectively, by an average of 10.88% and 14.06% under random faults and by 9.37% and 7.81% under targeted attacks. These experimental results confirm that the proposed method is capable of generating robust inter- and intra-chiplet interconnection networks that can withstand both faults and attacks. By optimizing the network topology’s robustness, it provides a valuable contribution to the design and security of chiplet-based core systems.